they have no intention of doing anything, and, yet, again, the obama administration saying, oh, we're working hard on the problem, when, in fact, they are doing nothing, setting us back, not going forward, but increasing spending, not reducing it. >> the road map going forward is declaring victory saying we're for middle class tax cuts reaching a deal early in january even though this is a g.o.p. middle class tax rate that president george w. bush enacted so, you know, that's the way going forward. >> wait for the first paycheck, it's going to be lower. >> see what happens monday morning, dying to see what happens this weekend. >> yeah, because they are meeting this weekend. >> oh, are they meeting? dagen, it's yours. >> when you are outraged, you sound authoritative. i sound like a crazy red neck. i need your help.

putting the band back together, the president hosting party leaders at the white house trying to find middle ground on dealing with the coming tax increases and spending cuts. the damage done already to american business, uncertainty and looming tax burden has owners up in arms. can housing continue to recover among all of this? why washington should not pull out the rug from under this rebound. ship wreck, massive port strike that could happen this weekend halts commerce for the country. top of the hour, stocks now and every 15 minutes, lauren at the new york stock exchange. stocks down, but it could be worse, lauren. >> it could be worse. at one point, after 109 points, and now down 59 on the second to last trading day of the year. the nasdaq, believe it or not, is the winner today, down by just about .16%, doing the best of the three major averages.

i point that out because for the month of december, the nasdaq is the only major average negative. it's interesting to know we started the year with nasdaq at 26.0 # 5, and now at 29.81, we came a long way. a good year for tech. the vix up above 20. fear of the fiscal cliff and traders saying, all right, we have this idea of a deal getting done baked into the markets, but maybe that's going to unravel a little bit. barnes and noble share, stock up more than 6 #% as i speak. the news is both good and bad. bad news first. they say the holiday period and sales trends will not meet expectations, and the reason for that is the nook business at the same time peerson investing a lot of money in the nook business so two pieces of news affecting the stock today, but it is a winner. look at that volume. pretty good. back to you.

dagen: thank you, lauren. two hours to go until an 11th hour meeting between washington and the leaders. any kind of compromise? rich edson's live on capitol hill with up-to-the-minute developments. rich, what do you know? >> republicans anticipating or expecting president obama and democrats to offer a fiscal cliff deal, perhaps a scaled back proposal, but, still, no indication that's going to happen this afternoon. the senate is in session. the house returns sunday. they will take a vote sunday night on another piece of legislation. the senate has been working on other legislation, not related to the fiscal cliff, and that has some folks in washington speculating this afternoon's meeting in the white house is nothing but show. the one senior democrat says it is a serious effort. >> well, this is not for show, but a last ditch effort by the president to bring the congressional leaders together to try to get at least a small package, small deal together

before the new year to avoid some of the tax parts of the fiscal cliff and the deal with some of the unemployment issues. >> now, that deal, the small deal that the congressman is talking about, speculation perhaps that includes a tax rate tax increase for families earning $500,000 a year, mid way point almost between what democrats and republicans had in the opening offer. perhaps up employment extension and other spending to get through the new year, and congress can, yes, kick the can to next year and figure it out, maybe, next year. back to you. dagen: maybe. rich, thank you so much. great to see you. bringing in former democratic senator of north dakota, in washington, d.c.. senator, great to see you. >> good to be here. dagen: this meeting posturing or progress. what say you? >> well, i mean, there needs to be a meeting and pleased the president called one. i sat in meetings like that with republican and democratic presidents at the white house at

times like this, but the fact is i think all of the sides here have had a lost opportunity. implication of the cliff was to create a cliff requiring serious people talking about serious things for about three to four or five months prior to the cliff for big solutions to the economic trouble faced. that didn't happen. now we're to the 12th hour, not unusual for political issues these days, unfortunately, but this all reenforces the notion of why gridlock stops progress on everything here in washington. what they need to do now is make sure that we do no harm to the economy. that's the important element at the moment. dagen: we hope for that, senator, but since the election, it's as if the differences between the two sides have hardened even more, and even if they do something small to prevent serious harm to the economy, what does that even say about the potential for tax

reform in the coming year? what's that say about the potential to really try and write our nation financially? that will not get done. i mean, what it going to take to get them to act responsibly in the best interest of the country? >> well, you know, the lubrication for democracy is for people who feel differently to come together and reach compromise. i mean, that's always been the way things worked, and i served in congress for 30 years with people who, at the end of the day, even though they felt differently and strongly about things r they wanted to come together understanding they needed to compromise. you know, you mentioned, for example, tax reform. we need tax reform in the country, and i was in the 1986 ways and means committee, and reagan was president, democratic congress, it was hard to do, a long time, but we did it, and in the end, it required a lot of compromise and a lot of working together. those elements don't exist much today, and i hope somehow through all of this, whatever happens now in the next couple

days, i hope somehow there's an understanding that you can't go on like this. it doesn't serve the country's interest to continue this kind of gridlock. we have to make decisions about the future. dagen: well, what will change it, though? what will change it? >> well, you know, what is happening at the moment is reenforcing in everybody's mind in this country that things are not working here. i hope everybody, republicans and democrats, the president, the congress understand we've got to show people we can work together. we can make compromises. you know, we have some new people in congress who made a promise back home, we won't compromise on anything, but stand by the principles and never compromise. unfortunately, things can't work that way. you must compromise. dagen: senator, great to see you, thank you so much. >> thank you very much. good to be with you. dagen: avoiding the cold in your home state for the time being. >> thank you. dagen: good to see you, be well. uncertainty hitting business planning for 2013 and beyond.

drew green black, ceo of steel, part of a small group of business leaders invisitted to the white house last month on the fiscal cliff, and based on your meeting, drew, does the president understand the damage being done to business and the country already just because of the lack of action? >> i think the president and the congress are right now not serving the people in the best fashion. we need the fiscal cliff resolved right away. this uncertainty causes great harm to the country, and we need very aggressive plans to reformulate our budget so that we don't have to have this uncertainty hanging over us so freakedly. you know, right now, american factories have a 20% price differential with competitors all through the the world. we need our system to be more

competitive so we can grow. if we raise taxes on the job creators, on the factory owners, what happens is we'll be less competitive. the 20% will grow. we'll have less factories built here in america. it's very important that washington starts working out deals right away so that the fiscal cliff can be history, and we can focus on building factories, higher people, growing. dagen: well, they are not listening to you, drew. i hate to break it to you. in the interim, your company makes wire baskets and does sheet metal fabrication. based on what you see, how much of your own customers pulled back? have you seen layoffs? have you seen spending cuts ahead of the lack of a deal? >> we are seeing many clients pause. we're seeing many clients, particularly in the military, stop ordering. our military sales have plummeted because everybody's concerned about sequestering,

and what that's doing is causing a negative ripple effect throughout the economy. you know, the prior guest, senator dorgan, mentioned in the future there could be problems. the problems are already happening. people are adjusting. people are making budgets now for next year, and what they are doing is deflating home people to hire next year. that's not positive. that's not going to end the recession. we need a bold plan that will quickly end the recession, and that means we have to be more competitive. dagen: well, that's assuming -- >> if we're more competitive, we grow, if we grow, we hire people, and that ends the recession. dagen: assuming we're going back in the recession, which some predicted if this goes on any longer, but is that what it's going to take? a serious economic down turn? is it going to take a spike in interest rates for washington to act and do something about the entire financial environment in the country? >> i think washington's playing

with fire. i don't think they realize this is not a game. people right now are unsettled, and they are not certain about the future, and they are adjusting budgets because people plan right now. job creators make their budgets for next year now. dagen: right. >> we're deciding how many people to hire. i have a buddy in rhode island running a factory with 500 employees and told the four department heads give me plans for 20% across the board cut if the fiscal cliff hits. i mean, this is the wrong posture. we don't want people that create jobs, people that decide how many people will be hired in the next year to be having -- to have bad karma now. we want people looking forward in a positive way, how we're going to grow into new markets, how to export more. we need the country to be more competitive so we can export to china, mexico, export to canada. that's critical, growth. if we have growth, we hire more people. dagen: drew, thank you, great to

see you. happy new year. >> thank you, go rg iii. dagen: yeah, babe! we'll kick the cowboys you know what into mexico. drew, thank you, be well. end on a positive note. positive newses too for the housing market, recovery on the way. anthony sanders is here saying washington better not screw it up. in a show of arms, iran's military moves and what that means for the price of oil and gasoline here at home. look at how oil is trading today, well above $90 barrel a mark, down just slightly, but close to 91 bucks. ♪ [ male announcer ] at scottrade,

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dagen: quarter past the hour, stocks now and every 15 minutes. lauren has movers in the sight. hey, lauren. >> let's look at the losers on the dow jones industrial have. hp down 1.7%, all of these stocks, merck, united technology, down two-thirds of 1%, not awful. down the session 109. oil down, the dollar's up. we have interesting trade going on. we also have the vix index up as

well. >> thank you so much. oil prices dipping lower despite a drop in crude inventories, and meantime, can't take your eyes off iran. state tv there reported the country maneuvered the navy in the area of strait of hormuz, a move that could have a big impact on oil. joining us is president of jj woods and associates. is this where we go from here? further up? again, crude at $91 a barrel is not a pretty sight unless you are long oil. >> yeah, and that's pretty much what the market is. i mean, i'm a little surprised that there has not been more profit taking, but like you mentioned before, you know, a bunch ever iranians rattling a saber out there making people near nows. it's 92.5, doesn't look good, but overreactions put us there. dagen: if there's not a deal done in washington to care for the looming tax increases and

spending cuts, isn't oil going lower in the coming months? >> when you talk about the deal down in washington, the boys will get it together. it's a matter of time. it's like, you know, who wants to be the hero in the 11th hour saying it's because of me, i got it done. that's a scenario, but another is you mentioned all eyes on the middle east. i mean, that's a real powder keg there, and, you know, nothing really has to happen concretely, but just the mere mention of it, and, man, you'll have oil, $2 higher. come in on monday and tuesday, looking at $93, and you point to what happened over there. even though nothing like a mentioned before constructively happened. all rumors. dagen: john woods, thank you. >> no problem. dagen: happy new year. >> to you too. dagen: knows more about bonds than any other man in the country.

bonds booming. what's in store for 2013, and how much does washington have to do with it? a massive port strike threatening the economy and commerce from coast-to-coast and could happen this weekend. look at how the dollar holding up against world currency. why is the euro at a buck-32? ♪

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dagen: if they don't get the job done in dc, the markets price in recession and the prospect of a down grade of u.s. debt once again, back on the table. bob, head of fixed income for vanguard with about three quarters of a trillion dollars under management in money market and bond as sets. bob, i don't know how you sleep at night given the pressure of handling that much money. think about that often. good to see you. >> good to see you. dagen: bob, what do you think of what's happening? washington? what happens in the bond market if recession becomes more likely? >> well, clearly, volatility kicks up a lot, and you're going to see decline in treasury yields and probably a rise in

the spread differentials of corporate bonds and other credit backed bonds relative to treasuries so it's not going to be a pretty picture for our bond holder. you know, that said, they are ultimately going to fix this, by they will put us through hell in between. dagen: bob, looking at the -- all the classes of fixed income, the out performance over treasuries in all grades of corporates, even in municipal bonds, but particularly, you start looking at the lower grade corporate debt, and it looks really, really hitty so to speak. danger in owning that, say, high yield at this point? >> well, you're absolutely right. if you look inside of each of the categories, the lower rate, higher yielding paper substantially outperforms sometimes two to four percentage points. what i worry about in 2013, one of several things i'm concerned about, is that we're really

approaching asset bubble conditions in some of the sectors, and what happens at the federal reserve pulling away the punch bowl in terms of enormously expansion their monetary policy, that could be an interesting situation if that does occur. dagenn speaking of the federal reserve pulling away the punch bowl, and correct me if i'm wrong, which i am often, the federal reserve, in part, trying to force money into the stock market and out of very low yielding assets like treasury bonds, but i guess if they wanted to accomplish that, you take the bunch bowl away, and you would see interest rates rise. there's lawsuits for people. that would forre out of fixed income. how much of a danger is that? >> well, i think there's a strong danger. the -- one of our big concerns here at vanguard and something we've been trying to talk to our clients about a lot is that we've had a lot of people being forced, as you correctly point

out, by the federal reserve to move out of the money market funds and cds and riskier assets. do they really understand risks involved with those? we really spend a lot of time educating them. with that said, i'm concerned about investors in general not really understanding what they have, and if interest rates go up, even a small amount, there could be negative rates of returns on securities or funds and how will they react, particularly in an environment where there's a potential for less liquidity. dagen: washington, as they have in the past, pardon the language, screws things up, though, then the fed a likely to stay accommodative; right? in the coming year, do you think? >> they absolutely are. i think it's probably, at least near term, the right policy. my concern is if inflation unexpectedly rises for some reason, will they be quick enough to pull away all the

enormous liquidity in the market place? they feel they can, but we have seen instances before in the past 20-30 # years where that's not been the case, and it's going to be pretty hard to figure out so, to me, that's one of the bigger, longer term issues not to come into play, at least through much of 2013. dagen: bob, really quickly, what do you like owning right now? what helps you sleep? what makes you comfortable? >> boy, that's a tough one. i would really stay pretty broadly diversified in higher contribute quality paper right now because i do think some of the sectors have over eased themselves. if we pull back, say in high yield bonds or lower quality investment grade securities, that may be an opportunity to get back in the marketplace. dagen: bob, great to see you, happy new year. >> good talking to you. dagen: good talking to you all year and hope to have more talks

next year. end of the year rush on capitol hill, lawmakers trying to get it together and get a deal done. i'll talk to kate bailey hutchenson who is leaving the senate. she's proud of our co-workers and how they are acting, both sides of the aisle. more good news on the housing front, but the signs of recovery, could they be undermind by washington? housing a small winner this year. here's some of today's winners on the s&p. ♪

dagen: breaking news. that poor strike we have been talking about, it has been adverted. the alliance have reached a deal. it could have cost billions of dollars in economic damage. what is going on? what do you know? >> the sticking point that clearly now has been resolved thing to that federal involvement by that mediator. both sides -- their key sticking points have been smoothed out. these royalty fees are based on the weight of each container. basically it comes down to this,

each container, the heavier it weighs, the more the longshoremen gets paid. the owners of the shipping companies did not want to see those rates rise. they wanted to free -- freeze them at last year's levels. they fought hard for their salaries. they fought hard until the day before the deadline. the deadline was 11:59 p.m. saturday night. after that, that is when the longshoremen declared they would go on strike. this would have been absolutely crushing to the u.s. economy right now. from boston, new york, new jersey, philadelphia, to houston texas. all of those ports would have been basically frozen, as far as

the container shipping would have gone. that mess would have been layoffs and loss of income. of course, all of those consumer products in those containers such as electronics, auto parts, airline parts, frozen foods, clothing, manufacturing goods, all of that would have been frozen. prices going up for the remainder. this would have been a one, two, knockout punch. many experts. this would have absolutely triggered a recession. this container cliff, by all accounts, has been adverted by basically the last minute. that is great news for the ports, as well as, the u.s. commerce, jobs in the u.s.

president did not get faced with the choice of invoking the tax which would have declared the strike illegal. he would have completely alienated all of that labor supporting he just had in the campaign. everything looking good so far. we will get more details and report back on this later here in the day. dagen: thank you so much. port strike averted. he will be bringing in more details. they did come into some sort of agreement. a potential headache. not on the horizon for president obama because he has a deal with, you know what i am going to say, those two words, he is meeting with congressional leaders at 2:00 p.m. let me bring in senator kay

bailey hutchinson. given how both sides of the aisle are acting, senator, are you proud of your fellow lawmakers and how they are handling the nation's business as you get ready to exit? >> well, the best part of what you just said is my exit. [ laughter ] >> it is pretty depressing, honestly, to watch all the posturing. however, you know, i continue to believe that everybody understands that the fiscal cliff would be too huge a burden on american families. therefore, i hope so much that when they meet this afternoon, even though it is a photo off and probably now not progress to be made that minute that they will make in agreement to come up with something that they can

at least try to us of the double republicans and democrats can vote for. that is the only way we will be able to pass anything or either house. dagen: what did your fellow republicans say they are willing to vote for? >> i think if there is some movement on a way forward on spending cuts, perhaps they changed cpi, which the president said he would certainly put on the table. those are the kinds of things. deficit and looming debt that we have been concerned about from the beginning that it would take for republicans to vote for then what the democrats are asking for which is some kind of tax increase on some high income level people and the extension of the unemployment insurance. we all want to do amt relief. we all want to do something that

will help in cap gains and evidence. i think there are places where we are together and there are the fringes where we have to negotiate. dagen: are they giving a free pass because they are out there buying treasury debt? eventually, allowing you to not do anything. it is standing and ready and buying. >> i disagreed with what this ad is doing. it is one of those numbers things that we never really know what is really happening. we need to deal with overspending and too much debt

in this country. that is where we are having the tension between the two parties. dagen: senator hutchinson, it was great to talk with you. thank you. some good news for you homeowners out there. we have had good news all week. we have home prices going up year over year. new home sales and pending home sales. at the highest level in two and a half years. one business owner says he is not worried if we had over the cliff. right, jeff flock. jeff: he thinks you and i are crazy for making too much of a deal out of the fiscal cliff. this ceo says the fiscal cliff has a bunch of outside noise. we will have his story of the fiscal cliff when we come back. ♪ ♪

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>> im adam schapiro with your fox business brief. general dynamics have been asked to build u.s. submarines for the u.s. navy. it is worth $400 billion. the money has already been securee. barge companies fear falling water levels on the mississippi river could halt commerce as early as next week. the coast guard says it is confident that the waterway will remain open.

a new report says champagne sales in france are down nearly 5% from last year. despite the weak sales, france still consumed the most to give more than 170 million bottles in the last year alone. that is the latest from the fox business network. giving you the power to prosper. ♪ with fidelity's new options platform, we've completely integrated every step of the process, to get a list of equ.

evaluate them with our p&l calculator... and execute faster with our more intuitive trade ticket. i'm greg stevens and i helped create fidelity's options platform. it one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account. dagen: pending home sales rising in november for a third straight month. now running at the highest level we have seen in two and a half years. will that continue? joining me now is anthony sanders. we have seen it all week and all the numbers lately. can it continue as we watch this fight go on down in defeat? >> the good news is, i think it can continue. just superlow interest rates

will be a big stimulus. we are coming back from historic low new-home sales. the good news is, the pressure will be mounting. countering that, of course, is taxmagedon. dagen: you have seen confidence get her. you saw it in the numbers yesterday. how does that not translate in home sales. >> as your friend and our friend bob schiller said people are optimistic about the housing3 market. odds are, just momentum from the fed super easy monetary policy and the fact that that you know, we are just coming back from all-time lows.

we will likely see all-time continuation. dagen: do you think that they won't touch, that lawmakers will ever touch the interest deduction. you have grown manly men screaming like they are 3-year-old girls. >> i got hate mail. dagen: i am sure you did. >> particularly l.a., easy and new york. they will have to maybe. there aren't too many people. everyone wants the deduction.

they will have to cut something. again, as i have been talking about over the week, you know, the automatic spending cuts that will go into place are only, get ready for this, 6% of the current budget deficit. it is not the budget cuts, automatic budget cuts, that people are screaming about. it is the taxes. i think it is an average $2500 per american household. that is not good. that will take something out of their demand for housing. dagen: oh, it sure will. that is showing up in everyone's paycheck. >> there is a lot of momentum for housing to come back. dagen: anthony, great to see you. thank you so much. quarter till the hour. stocks now and every 15 minutes.

what about homebuilders? >> another good housing report. first, we got solid sales of preowned homes. now, this, from the national association of retailers. pending home sales came in at a two and a half year high. you can see the homebuilders performance. most of them are down. my point is, these solid housing reports are not helping the overall market. if you look at the homebuilders etf, that is up 52% this year. dagen: thank you so much, lauren. we will bring you one business worried about bringing their businesses to a standstill. we have one business who is not worried about it. jeff flock has more on this

story. jeff: always good to have all the voices represented. >> we tend to pay attention to the things that impact our business. jeff: i want to take a look at some of the stocks and businesses that you sell to. >> a recession would be painful most likely for american workers. i think you will still see investment in networks that help operate large complex systems.

chevron is not going to stop putting up networks to manage their oil and gas fields because there is a fiscal cliff. they will make that decision based on the demand for oil. jeff: you have made no plans. >> this is one of the busieet quarters we have ever had. we are very confident of our antenna business and the demand. jeff: bring on the fiscal cliff says marty singer. we have all made too much of it. that is a voice that needs to be heard out there. business is coming here. dagen: jeff, thank you so much for that. jeff flock in illinois. we have another storm headed our way. we will have the latest weather reports. here are some of today's losers

on the nasdaq. ♪

dagen: just after one winter storm dumped snow, here comes another one. i do not need to smile. what is not to smile about. >> good morning, everyone. we have another storm system. it is looking more and more that this storm will be intensifying enough to dumped a foot of snow. please, stay alert if you live across eastern massachusetts,

maine, you could be looking at a significant snowfall of that. that storm system is further off to the north as right now. nothing we are not used to out here. as we head south, we do have showers and storms. something of note and concern is we do have reports of freezing rain across arkansas and western portions of tennessee. we could be seeing it as early as saturday morning. if you are hitting the road, keep that in mind. some places could get a foot of snow. dagen: but not in time square. >> not in times square.

dagen: maria, thank you for that. crude oil inventories falling. sandra smith has today's trade from the pits of the cme. natural gas prices directly tied to the coal temperatures. we have this eia natural gas report out today. this is a report about how much we have used. 72 billion cubic feet drawdown. that is a drawdown. that is why prices are going higher. that was right in line with estimates. natural gas is the biggest gaining commodity. by the way, that gass of two out of the last three trading sessions.

we will see beloo trading temperatures. oil prices, they are down because we have that huge build an inventory. moving in opposite directions, as we speak. dagen: thank you, sandra. i want to take a shot of our control room. we want to say, that is our line producer and me and the whole staff want to congratulate her for just getting engaged. [ applause ] congratulations. i have seen that ring up close, very close, i may add, keith, you did very well. we are very excited. keith, works here, by the way. congratulations. moving on. we have to talk about

washington. john brown saying throw the bums out. it is a limit legislators to a one-year term. dennis kneale and shibani joshi are coming up. ♪ >> announcer: you never know when, but thieves can steal your identity and turn your life upside down. hi. >> hi.

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shibani: will command happy friday. dennis: what is wrong with washington? did you ever got the fiscal cliff talk would come down to the last minute? gridlocks washington leaders are there again. shibani: where do we begin? >> tracy to kids, come in, kids. shibani: remember the two way wrist watch radio?

neither do i. new reports say apple is about to talk and we are not even joking on this one. dennis: i do remember it. a 1-2 punch digging out from a major snow storm. the big cities of the east coast bracing for another. shibani: top of the hour every 15 minutes, we have lauren simonetti on the floor of the stock exchange. how are things looking? >> could be a lot worse but stocks are selling off for the fifth day in a row. the dow is down 67 points and the nasdaq down 9 and the s&p down 7. we were much lower earlier in the session. the vix index is spiking and volume to the downside today. is the second to last trading day of the year so this december rally, in jeopardy for the dow and the s and p and the nasdaq gave up the december gains but the financials go the market often times. as we look at the banks, here are the ones that are trading

lower. bank of america down 1/2%, wells fargo trying to get into the green. as for the dow jones industrial average we have two stocks in the green, home depot is one of them and it turned into the positive after that strike at the east coast and gulf port was averted. american express is the other positive dow component. dennis: thank you very much. more on the kabuki theater in d.c. hours until the eleventh hour meeting at the white house, president obama and congressional leaders. shibani: will they hammer out a fiscal quick compromise? rich edson is live on capitol hill with up-to-the-minute developments. >> washington is waiting on that meeting. the top democrat, top republican in the house and senate with some expectation that congress and the president could move together on a smaller plan. the speculation in washington, expectation is perhaps congress and the president could agree to some type of tax framework,

something that extends unemployment insurance, perhaps other items to throw in and kick the can to next year and congress can work on larger spending cuts and a larger tax overhaul and that is something the president alluded to on friday asking congress to extend unemployment benefits and get a deal on tax rates. the president wants tax rate increase on amounts of $250,000 a year. the latest republican proposal was $1 million a year. the president and republicans before their talks broke off were $400,000 for family filing for a tax increase of amounts of $400,000 a year so there is some history of a compromise amount on taxes. the senate is working on unrelated legislation, the house comes in sunday afternoon holding an unrelated vote sunday night. that is unless the white house, president and folks in congress come to an agreement, if they were to reach an agreement, that

they are there yet and have a smaller package, kick the can to next year, where in theory they get something to kick it again. dennis: let us pray, thank you, rich edson. why does washington always wait until the last panic stricken second before rival sides hammered out a compromise. juan williams, what is your opinion? will the compromise in time? >> your going cliff diving, will the markets panic? we have until january the following monday, and you get some kind of package or deal, might not be any grand bargain, when that would extend the bush

tax cuts and the sequestration cuts take place. dennis: i was talking to a big investor who argued, any time there's a strike, management has to be grown up and do something to get workers back to work and in this case president obama's management and house republicans, is it time for the president to make a dramatic concession? >> you talking to a political analyst, who has political advantage, having won the election if you look at the polls is pretty clear. and republicans get the lion's share of the blame but this is what is missing in this equation. the american people expect president obama will show some leadership and have the ability in the second term to get significant thing is done. if we are locked into a sea of economic uncertainty, it hurts

president obama and hurt his ability to do anything else and says we will be locked into gridlock for the entirety of the second term. doesn't want it. dennis: democrats run for reelection, they probably don't want that either. >> i wonder at some point say republicans give in, taxes on millionaires, we are bringing in an extra $90 billion in revenue but still spending $1.1 trillion more than we take in so problems are not solved if we soak the rich. >> the issue, i could make your point stronger, eight billion dollars of spending is how minuscule it is that the reality is for him and the left they said it has got to be shared sacrifice. you have heard that in the course of the campaign. if you ask people to resume paying the payroll tax and ask people to take cuts in terms of entitlement reform and all that they say people at the top of

the income scale have to make some sacrifice and that would be what it is about. it is politics and -- this is political symbolism to say we are going to have tax hikes, the marginal tax rate. dennis: give me a number no democrat has been willing to give me, the top 1% of earners in this country control 19% of annual income and pay 40% of federal income-tax. if 1% pay 40%, they're paying 25% income tax when tax rates were lower anddif 1% pay 40% of taxes is it enough? what should that 40% share be from the top 1%? >> the clinton rate was 39%. dennis: share of tax dollars. >> overall share, how do you measure that? the fact is you equate in terms of wealth as opposed to income is even greater. a small percentage of americans

own all the wealth. i thought you were talking about marginal tax rates. if it was marginal tax rates we're doing fine -- dennis: the bottom half of earners pay zero federal income-tax. they pay sales taxes and% income-tax. [talking over each other] >> they pay less than nothing because we get earned income tax credit. dennis: all right, sounds good to me. [talking over each other] dennis: we will cut you down. shibani: the fiscal cliff survival kit is here. the market's jump in and fiscal cliff years. what should you do to protect your money, your portfolio, your sanity, your 401(k)? joining us is president and ceo of shaver asset management dan shaffer. good to have you on this friday, big day for the market. all these talks, i noticed movement in bond prices. in the currency market, what is your technical analysis telling

you about these? >> the setup seems to be there is winding of speculation. i follow the commitment of traders report every friday afternoon by the cftc and the government and tell you who is on what side of the market so we're looking at speculator is being more of the bullish crowd where commercials or hedgers and these are the traders that are not neutral. they are not speculating. they hold on the other side the other side of the trade in the cash market so we are looking at the currency market in particular, they are setting up for a strong u.s. dollar rally where they are heavily short of the british pound and the australian dollar and swiss franc, getting some movement. shibani: it is clear it is a set up but what is the cat was to cash in on this? >> the catalyst no matter what the response is out of washington with the fiscal cliff it is going to slow the economy next year.

raising of taxes, cutting down of government spending will decrease economic growth, gdp growth which calculations -- shibani: we're predicting a slowdown but predicting a rise in currency in u.s. dollar. how does that -- >> good question. for safety. the bond market everyone is bearish on the bond market because interest rates should go up but in all reality the commercials have positioned themselves for short-term move down which we had. going back to neutral again and the open interest which is how many contracts are exposed to this trend or hedge are at the lowest level in years. usually you will get higher open interest of the market is going to move in the direction lower and the bond market is signaling that things are not going to be worked out and the economy will slow down the u.s. currency strengthens when there is nervousness around world which relates to the stock market going down. byy the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling -- shibani: the fiscal cliff --

>> cash is king. next you may expect earnings -- it is better than losing. we have seen how fast these markets are reacting to the news. yesterday if you wanted to take a larger position you could short the market using exchange traded funds without getting out of your positions and go into the bond market for the treasury's o take some kind of yield out of that. shibani: specific names. >> t l p is long-term treasury bond which for full disclosure i own from my clients. i am short using the et after the stock-market and the s&p and the dow and the russell. my client's head of ford folios and we have smaller stocks like family dollar stores. if the economy gets worse and full disclosure we do own family dollar, these kind of companies are going to do well when people have no money. shibani: great hedge plays, thanks very much. -pdennis: john brown coming up,

the only real fix for washington gridlock is to limit legislators to 1-year terms. shibani: crisis averted on the east coast. massive looming port strike will not happen. we will be live in miami with up-to-the-minute details. dennis: a white new year's eve snowy forecast coming ahead. shibani: the new year's eve parking lot in times squure getting there mittens and gloves out but as we do every day at this time take a look at oil edging down 1/3%.

connell: stocks every 15 minutes. dennis: sandra smith and trading pits of the cme watching energy but first lauren simonetti on the floor of the new york stock exchange. >> the dow is down 59 points, and the s&p 500. that is why we are not selling of more than we are, this could be the longest losing streak, and three months. and we have been through, congressional negotiations get a deal in the eleventh hour.

in terms of stocks, bringing the burger king, costa rica and kuala mola, with a company -- that stock is down 1-3/4%. for the commodities let's go to sandra smith. sandra: a couple days late, the christmas holiday, crude-oil inventories report wednesday, we got it today. a bit of market movers for crude oil and natural gas, the biggest gain in commodity up 1/4%, and this is a combination with the fact the we are kidding cooler than normal temperatures in the northeast where a lot of this is used to heat homes and very bullish for natural gas up 2 of

the last three daas, we will see natural gas prices going higher. crude-oil prices with $90 a barrel, holding above that right now, down on the session but we got a bigger than expected build in crude inventories in the latest week and a lot of the highs of the fiscal cliff in the face of the fiscal cliff lot of the energy demand is backing off. consumption is down this energy record shows and that is why crude-oil prices are selling off but again important to point out is holding still despite the sell-off above $90 a barrel. shibani: fiscal cliff talks felt far and wide certainly in the pits of the cme. dennis: the year ending with positive news for the housing market but will washington pull the plug on its recovery? shibani: we will tell you what could be apple's latest products--and it wraps around your wrist. dennis: here's how the world's

currencies are faring today.

shibani: more positive news out of the housing sector, leading indicator of the housing market, pending home sales up in november for the record straight month now at a 2-1/2 year high, this data put out by the national association of realtors and i'm joined by chief economist lawrence unit. looking at the date of last couple months, housing prices are up, starts are up, and in home sales are up. is it fair to say that in 2012 warehousing market finally came alive? >> absolutely. furthermore things the going down our inventories, a number of foreclosures going down, based on the market. things that need to go up are going up and things that need to go down are going down and everything is moving in the right direction. shibani: everything moving in the right direction but we have a major decision coming out of washington over the next few days. what hangs in the balance next year given what is happening in

d.c.? >> if there is fiscal cliff and hopefully we won't have that over a short period of time, if we avoid fiscal cliff we can anticipate the economy continued to expand and create two million jobs and job creation has been a source of housing demand, household formation, rands rising which is beginning to tip printers in to buying a home. those are enticing factors. shibani: one of a falloff of a fiscal cliff? >> we will see a fault to the recovery. we will see 1 million job losses rather than job creations. experience will come to a halt. shibani: mortgages underwater, two million homeowners, an issue that continues to hold it back?

how to get unstuck? >> to get the underwater situation improved home prices will rise. it is rising 5%, translating to two million people -- going underwater. and additional homeowners, additional 5% price increase, and additional two million people, we are not out of the woods for the underwater homeowners, and for recent home buyers we're getting needed equity gains. shibani: it is apart from the overall story with dodd-frank regulation coming on? >> we are concerned about what could potentially get mortgages more difficult, bringing buyers

into the market, and it still remains overly stringent and some listening could provide additional boosts to the housing recovery. shibani: we are looking forward for the recovery to continue. thank you for being with us. happy new year. dennis: time is running out for some of the people who lost their homes to foreclosure in 2009-2010. they're eligible for clash -- cash to $1,000 with a government settlement. a year ago, notice for four million homeowners but so far 10% have bothered to sign of for a review of cases. they have until monday, the third time the deadline was extended. shibani: you can lead a horse to water but can't force it to drink. dennis: if you can't pay your home you get foreclose on. shibani: part of the problem is two million homes under water

can't get full recovery until the issue gets resolved. throwwthem out of washington, john brown is ahead and says it is the only way to prevent crises like this from happening again. sound like a good plan to me. dennis: there is an 11th-hour deal to stop a strike at the ports up and down the east and gulf coasts. live in miami with the latest. shibani: a look at the losers today on the s&p 500. advanced micro, bolero, hewlett-packard, the biggest are on the dow, 2% today. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is karen anjeremiah.

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dennis: throw the bums out, don brown says that is the only way to prevent future fiscal cliff to limit politicians' to a single term. here's news that makes washington talk look like kabuki theater, strike threat for east coast ports would arrest as negotiators get a deal. for the more distinguished members of the audience, read old, dick tracy comic strip with a two way wristwatch radio, we will tell you how apple may be about to top it. shibani: 30 past the hour stocks every 15 minutes. lauren simonetti is here now, barnes and noble up big time, surprising considering they did not have a good christmas. >> big winner on good volume. barnes and noble shares up 6% and even more in the free-market but that is right. they did say their preliminary holiday sales come in weaker than expected and also plan on

raising a warning about their -- bad news which they gave second, the first piece of information they gave which puts the stock up 12% was that pearson with investing $90 million in its milk business, pearson shares are flash. all of this affecting apple shares today. the educational play that means more competition and finally stocks overall exactly where they were last week, still down on session lows. dennis: thank you. time for term limits? that is our next guest's solution to fixing the fiscal cliff and ending the kabuki theater. throw the bums out. joining us, senior economic consultant and former adviser to britain's margaret thatcher and john brown, one of the long as titles on the show today. make your case. >> i think the fiscal cliff is damaging to the economy and

american prestige, it is merely a side issue to the entitlement cliff that was engineered and constructed by the career politicians from both parties and the only way to stop it and fiscal cliff is bad enough, imagined getting rid of the entitlement cliff. it would take years and years of problems and the only way to surmount that in my view is to have strict single term limits for all politicians because the moment the politicians place their reelection and their career ahead of their party in the country, we want to reverse, we want the country to come first and that is the only way they can do it. the tea party has been very effective in targeting tax you see being argued now in congress and the house. with the republican party, the wrong target. the tea party in my view should be targeting single term limits

for all politicians. dennis: even if selfless members of congress voted for a single term limits don't you worry that they wouud be a bunch of amateurs and only basically getting their ea legs by the end of the first two year term in the house of representatives and now they have got to get out? >> that is exactly what we want, that is what democracy is about, having amateur politicians. we don't want professionals who are ingrained in corruption of washington and london and westminster. we want people from real life i if we had patriotic politicians as opposed to career politicians, patriotic amateur politicians, we would be able to do it and it would be a bright future for the united states. dennis: more fear spread around the world the lower u.s. bond treasury interest rates go and the cheaper it is for the government to keep bar when the debt which serves more panic around world which makes our bonds even cheaper which means we borrow more. i wonder where it ends.

eventually there will be another panic. thanks for being with us. good weekend to you. at the new year. they are in shipshape now. we have a deal that will keep all the ports on the east coast and gulf coast open for business. shibani: washington struggles to get a debt deal done it is the debt ceiling showdown many in the markets are now focusing on. dennis: take a look at ten year treasuries. we know all your investments y not be with fidelity, but we can still help you see your big picture. with the fidelity guided portfolio summary, you choose which accounts to track and use fidelity's analytics to spot trends, gain insights, and figure out what you want to do next.

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lawmakers remain at a standstill on how to resolve the fiscal cliff. the dow down 58 points. sources telling reuters the blackstone group will keep its money with sec capital despite a federal insider-trading probe into that very much watched hedge fund. blackstone has $550 million invested, insiders say there are three discussions about the ongoing investigation. starbucks looking to revamp its european operations, wall street journal reporting the coffee giant will open stores closer to areas where people work and live, at the high end shopping district. move following similar tactics starbucks used in a u.s. turnaround. that is the latest from fox business giving you the power to prosper.

shot shibani: the countdown to avoid the fiscal cliff but another crisis has been averted. the longshoremen's strike that

would have shut east coast and gulf coast ports at midnight tomorrow. dennis: phil keating has the latest details. he joined us from miami. phil: the good news is we can say no strike is happening this weekend. we could be right back where we were an hour-and-a-half ago worry about a pending strike if both sides do not finish working on everything over there 30 day extension that they agreed to. neither side sharing details yet as to how exactly they smoothed out there key sticking points over those royalty fees. the workers, the longshoremen did not want to have those levels capped at last year's levels saying these are an important part of their salary, working out to 15 grand per longshoreman every year. the shipping company owners wanted to capture those, somehow they didn't work that out but in a statement released by the federal mediator in washington

d.c. just about an hour-and-a-half ago, the royalty payment issue has been agreed upon in principle by the parties subject to achieving an overall collective bargaining agreement. this averted a strike keeps the ports from boston to new york to new jersey all-around florida and across the gulf of mexico all the way to eastern, texas, keeps them from freezing up, jabbing a cog in the supply chain of the u.s. economy. simply put all of those containers that are unloaded from ships, put on trucks and distributed for thousands of miles inland, those will continue to be flowing and keeping the economy going, keeping the supply of those goods like electronics, computer components, autoparts, airline parts, food, frozen food, clothing, you name it, all of that would have been impacted. supplies would have dropped and prices gone up for consumers, not to mention hundreds of

thousands of workers who would have been directly impacted at the ports, out of work, collecting unemployment, not making income. this is a great deal for everyone for now but again, 30 day extension in place, international longshoremen's association, and maritime alliance, have work to do to work everything out. president obama will not be put in the awkward position of deciding whether or not to act which would have alienated a lot of his campaign contributors. dennis: good day. the fiscal cliff is almost here and so is another government uncertainty. cheryl: the $16 trillion debt ceiling is living with the same thing among monday. of former t.a.r.p. treasury adviser, great to have you with this important day for the markets for the government for everyone, i want to talk about

strategy. i was on the air wednesday afternoon at 4:30, tim geithner comes on and we are going to run into the debt ceiling, that is it. what did he stand to gain and what pressure is he putting on? >> she couldn't not tell us. he has an obligation -- [talking over each other] >> december 31st is new information. by the end of the year, and if it waited until the last minute -- didn't want it to be part of the fiscal cliff negotiations. it does kind of create ship republicans can use against president obama, get out of this deal as well. dennis: didn't tim geithner say all the deadline, december 31st, there's some stuff we will do.

a few hundred billion here and there, trying to turn up the pressure on republicans. >> and official letter, the responsible treasury secretary also says we take extraordinary measures, fewer available than they did last round, accounting and gimmicks, not anything permanent, another $200 billion of head room under the limit which gives another two months but these are not precise numbers, we can tell you where we will hit it, they're lying or misinformed. you never know what tax receipts will look like. whenever know -- shibani: is ambitious to tackle fiscal cliff talks toy? >> they sound like they are related and they are in a longer-term strategy. in the short term the fiscal cliff is dealing with the budget

and the debt ceiling is money that congress has voted to spend a. it is leverage. shibani: one side has leverage over the other. >> absolutely. and interesting plan from senator mcconnell, the minority leader in the senate, republican leader has said maybe we can do what we did last time which is bailout congress to vote against it but still went forward. normally congress has to approve the debt ceiling going forward and mcconnell saying let it go forward and let congress vote against it, the majority won't vote against it and allow people to get on record saying i don't really like this. dennis: they know it will pass and they don't have to be responsible by defaulting on the debt. president obama's move to say let's take this out of congress and let me have sole authority to lift the borrowing authority whenever one won't fly. >> there have been a lot of shenanigans around this in the past. the conversation is when we are doing spending.

when we are passing appropriations is the time to say should we spend this money or not? they are deciding to spend the money and don't want to pay the bill and that is not the right time to have this conversation. shibani: is not in the household or the government. thank you very much, have a happy new year. it is a quarter till. every 15 minutes stocks, lauren simonetti looking at the s&p 500's biggest loser. >> advanced microdevices are selling off by 4.5% and if you take a look at the stock for the week it is pretty ugly, into the double digits, the reason is a 25 year veteran of the company to rival samsung, that is weighing on the stock and that is a pretty bad week. shibani: a bad week for overall stock. we are trading at tight range,

and broadly lower, stock markets and the things we like to look at and retail stocks are down and the banking stocks are down and commodities are down, so is the fear index. back to you. dennis: thanks very much. many families ready to adopt children in russia get their hearts broken. vladimir putin has signed a bill banning american families from adopting russian orphans. the move is seen as retaliation for criticism of human rights record, 60,000 russian children have been adopted by americans over the past two decades. shibani: as part of the northeast are shoveling out from the latest storm, another one is heading our way. we have latest report from the weather center. dennis: today's losers on nasdaq. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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cit imus: one winter storm is in the rearview mirror but another one is on the way. dennis: here with your weekend and new year's eve forecast, we

have accu-weather's violet grows. >> wednesday and thursday difficult for travel but conditions are improved this afternoon in the northeast but it is much colder, temperatures in the 3s in philadelphia and new york city with a chilly wind. we are tracking two areas of precipitation, one week storm system producing light snow in the upper midwest and great lakes around chicago and wisconsin producing low visibility right now. that will draft to the east approaching detroit later in to the course of tonight. overall accumulation of counts looking low but we are tracking another area of precipitation across the deep south where locally heavy showers and thunderstorms continue to push off to the east in arkansas, mississippi and louisiana. not expecting widespread but could be locally damaging storms mostly to the south of hy 20. over the next 24 hours the system will push to the northeast and by setting a widespread area of snow will develop all the one big difference between the last

storm system and this one is places that's almost the rain like new york city and philadelphia will be seeing mostly snow for this saturday. it won't be a lot. we're looking at area mixing in the baltimore area so we will be enough to disrupt travel. we're looking at a widespread area of one to thhee inches in the northeast with paramount's across eastern new england and that will push off shore, colder air fills in and the next storm system that develops on new year's eve across the deep south pushing to the northeast approaching the northeast once again for new year's day. dennis: thanks very much. time for your media minute. must steel tv. the hbo drama game of rollins was the most pirated show of the year and almost 4.3 million stolen the use. foreignfreak.com suffered two targets, showtime's serial killer series dexter, 3.8 million illegal download. two cbs shows and breaking bad,

the series on amc rounded out the top 5. kate wins less once soared on the ballot doomed ship in the movie titanic but she may soar into space. she got a wedding gift from sir richard branson, a free trip into space in the virgin galactic service. usually costs 124,000 british pounds. her new husband is branson's nephew. more media fallout from shootings in connecticut, a suburban newspaper took the controversial step of publishing and interactive map with the names and addresses of thousands of gun owners in two new york counties. a blogger has returned favor coasting the names and addresses of every employee at the paper, the journal news. shibani: a giant in the tablet and smart phone world, apple wants to play father time. the company is teaming up with intel to create a blue tooth

enabled watch. the device is set to have an inch and a half screen, the product is different from others in apple's treasure trove as the idea for the design is in tel's and apple is interested in building it. one company did beat apple to the punch, getting out into the marketplace. the pebble watch which connects to the android phone, blue tooth has received sec approval hitting shelves in a matter of months, $150 is what they are selling it for but what do you think of the idea? [talking over each other] dennis: i worry that apple is in danger of going from incredibly hip to incredibly geeky because any guy who wants the phone on his wrist watcc instantly as social adjusting problems. shibani: my dad loves calculator -- i think that -- [talking over each other] shibani: nobody wants them anymore. there is the target audience.

dennis: typical 27 apple customer doesn't know who dick tracy was. even a youngster like you didn't know. this product is aimed at old guys like me. obama at here is $20 for calling me a youngster. dennis: make or break time. two hours from the crucial white house meeting between president obama and congressional leaders. a imus: big apps for the big apple. the 108-year-old subway going high tech and we have adam shapiro coming up next. dennis: how do you is an apps in a subway when you can't get a signal? this i have got to see.

♪ >> the dow still down 68 points, 1337. you know, traders worried about the cliff, but i'm not afraid. they are going to work it out, and if they don't, it actually could be a good shock to the system. >> they will, but it shocks us